Fourth Down and Love

I watched this the first time awhile back and remember it as a rather blah romance. However, I just watched again, this time with an eye towards finding what I didn't like. While Pascale Hutton doesn't do much for me, I realize now the script called for her to be reluctant to engage romantically with Paevy because Paevy's agent sold her a bill of goods back in college. Now that I caught this, I think her character acting was fine as she was scripted. If anything this second time, I thought Paevy was too low key on the romance angle. His style is always laid back but with engaging charm, which I usually find enjoyable, but this time, he didn't bring enough charm to make it work. I have a feeling this role, the casting match and a rather lame script caused this to be one of his lesser outputs.

Wow a movie without saving the farm, store, town....or someone caught in a blizzard, it's a football storyline mixed with some romance. The story revolves around a divorced mom, Erin (Pascale Hutton) and a professional football player Mike (Ryan Paevey)who were once college sweethearts. They reconnect when the player gets injured and while he recovers he agrees to coach an all girls flag football team. Erin's daughter, Kiera, (Sophia Powers) is one of the players on the team. Old feelings reignite as they work through the reasons they broke up and renew the love they once had for each other.

Ryan Paevey is my favorite Hallmark male actor, and it was so good to see him return to acting after he took a hiatus. Ryan had great chemistry with Pascale Hutton and you could really tell that their feelings for one another were growing. The other characters were also well cast.

This is one of the better Hallmark movies, great script, great cast, and something a little bit different than "the usual" More Ryan and Pascale please.

I love Ryan Paevey and it was great to see him as the romantic lead in this football centric hallmark romance. I was happy to see that even though this was a football film, that they didn't make it male centric. Ryan Paevey plays the professional NFL football star Mike. He gets injured and has to go on injured reserve for his team while he rests his broken ribs and allows them to heal. His big brother Jimmy invites him to his home to rest with family support. There Jimmy and his wife Danielle talk Mike into helping Jimmy coach his daughter's all girl flag football team. Meanwhile, there is a single mom played by When Calls The Heart's Pascale Hutton whose daughter Kiera just wants to play football and is the only girl on her flag football team where they never give her a chance. One day while sharing the field she discovers the all girl team and has her mom talk to the two coaches. We learn that the reason Jimmy started his daughter's all girls team was because his daughter Zoey experienced the same thing as Kiera the year before. And this is how Pascale's character Erin meets Mike...again. As it turns out these two were college sweethearts and Erin broke Mike's heart.

This is filled with some sports romance cliches for sure...like the money grubbing manager played by the beloved Steve Bacic, the athlete having to leave town playing havoc on a romantic relationship, etc., but the truth is I didn't care. I enjoyed it and I appreciated some of the fresh aspects...like the struggle of girls who want to play, the camaraderie between the real estate partners Erin and Georgina that played out like a real friendship, and the loving and supportive family dynamic between Jimmy's family and Mike.

I though this was one of the better stories to come out of Hallmark, who has had a rough spell in my opinion trying to be too political or working overly hard to be inclusive and loosing the authenticity...that love and family that used to be their brand and attract their core audience. I feel like this was just a feel good romance that got back to that....love and family. I recommend this to all those romantics out there, especially fans of Hallmark.

I admitt, the presence in cast of Ryan Paevey is just enough for me to see a movie. In this case, near him, and the decent performance of pascale Hutton, a good point is represented by humor. And, indeed, in this case the humor is real important for reduce the unrealism dose of story and not the most inspired dialogue.

The football theme works not so bad, the past love story from universitarian studies at new beginning is more than reasonable and, sure, the supporting actors are precious.

But, in same measure, the sustain of their characters , interesting at whole, by the main actors is a virtue for film. Sure, predactibility and some mistakes. But decent. And nice.

This is the third time I've watched this movie, trying to figure out what's missing. I always look forward to seeing Ryan's movies, & I'm normally glued to the tube. Not this time. I even dozed off a few times when I first watched it. I love the main actors, just not together in this story. I don't believe they had the chemistry it takes to make it romantic. Maybe, it's because I'm so convinced of Pascale's role with Kavin in the series, When Calls the Heart. Sorry, Ryan! I hope in the future, they will match you up with the perfect actress in a true heart-throbbing romance. I did hear in one of his interviews that he'd like to act with Emilie Ullerup...hint hint.